SPORTS 11

Thursday, June 20, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Christan Bullock showing he belongs in the starting lineup

OMAHA, Neb. – The Michigan 
baseball team is having a good time.
They’re having so much fun, in 
fact, that sophomore center fielder 
Jesse Franklin has dubbed the 
ballpark where they’ve been playing 
their games “TD AmeriPlayground.”
No other Wolverine, perhaps, 
is having more fun than Christan 
Bullock. The junior left fielder made 
some starts early in the season, 
including two against Binghamton 
on opening weekend as well as all 
three games at The Citadel. After 
some struggles, though, Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich replaced him, 
putting redshirt senior Miles Lewis 
in left field instead. 
But as the Wolverines have 
continued to fight for their season, 
coming up with clutch victories 
when they needed them most – and 
when they seemed least likely – 
Bullock has been at the center of it 
all. He’s been a regular starter since 

late May and has played a key role in 
several of those clutch victories. 
He had three hits and scored 
three runs in Michigan’s defeat of 
Nebraska on May 25 in the Big Ten 
Tournament. In the two victories 
over Creighton in the regional, 
Bullock combined for a single, a 
double, and a home run as well as 
three walks and another run scored. 
And in the Wolverines’ win-or-go-
home victory over No. 1 UCLA in the 
Super Regional, Bullock had a walk, a 
double, a triple, two runs and a stolen 
base.
Not too shabby.
“It’s exciting just to have the 
opportunity to do things that help 
the team win,” Bullock said. “I just 
want to play for my brothers.” 
As far as raw athletic ability 
goes, Bullock is, as Bakich puts it, 
“unbelievable.” He’s shown flashes 
of power-hitting potential and stellar 
defensive ability at times throughout 
the season. Most importantly, he’s the 
team’s fastest baserunner, something 
that’s resulted in him being used as a 

pinch runner in many situations. Not 
to mention, he’s compiled 13 stolen 
bases on the season.
“He’s a gamechanger with his 
speed,” Bakich said. “He can turn 
a walk into a triple within a few 
pitches. He’s one of those guys that 
when he puts it all together, I think 
he’s got a chance to be one of the 
more dynamic, explosive players, not 
only in the conference, but maybe 
in the country. I think he’s got an 
incredible toolset.”
For Bullock, the bigger issue has 
been consistency. Harnessing that 
speed. Finding a way to control that 
power-hitting and being able to tap it 
when needed. The difference-maker 
for Bullock during this time of the 
season – and what’s helped him 
make the jump back into the starting 
nine – is discipline. He’s beginning 
to understand the importance of not 
just the games, but the practices, the 
meetings, the training sessions. He’s 
dedicated to the team, not just in the 
big moments, but in every moment.
“Consistency is just his key to his 

success,” Bakich said. “We’ve worked 
really hard on that consistency, 
starting in the training sessions 
and carrying over into the games. 
He’s always been a gamer, where he 
wants to turn it on in the game. As 
he’s matured in our program, he’s 
understood the importance of all the 
little things, the attention to detail.”
Now, Bullock is finally seeing 

the payoff of that discipline, that 
dedication. On the highest stage in 
college baseball – one of the biggest in 
collegiate athletics – he’s coming up 
huge for the Wolverines with over-
the-shoulder catches, stolen bases 
and clutch hits in tense moments.
“Being consistent always pays off,” 
Bullock said. “I’m just trying to do 
anything to help win a game.”

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

Erik Bakich named Coach of the Year

With the sun beating down on 
Creighton’s patchy turf practice 
field, the Michigan baseball team 
walked to the left field line and 
waited in the ranks for practice to 
begin.
Slowly after them came the man 
who would run practice, dressed 
in the same clothes as each of the 
players — distinguishable by only 
a bright yellow string around his 
neck. He blew his whistle, and the 
players were off.
While 
other 
coaches 
were 
mingling about the infield or 
watching the players warm up from 
afar, Michigan coach Erik Bakich 
was amidst the players, with them 
every step.
On Saturday morning, three 
hours prior to the Wolverines’ first 
game in the Men’s College World 
Series since 1984, Bakich was given 
the National Collegiate Baseball 
Writers Association’s Coach of the 
Year Award.
“It means we’ve got great 
players, 
great 
coaches, 
great 
support 
staff, 
great 
player’s 
parents, great coaches wives. We 
talk about deflecting individual 

honors all the time because they’re 
not done by any one person,” 
Bakich said. “All the credit, in 
my opinion, goes to all the other 
people that make this team great 
and that touch our program. So it’s 
a nice award, and I said this when I 
accepted it, I accept this on behalf 
of our team and all the people that I 
just mentioned because they’re the 
ones who did it.”
It’s always been about making 
something bigger for this team. In 
the team’s mind, this isn’t the 2019 
Michigan baseball team, it’s team 
153 — just another in a long line of 
baseball teams for the program. 
But don’t let Bakich’s deflection 
take your mind off him. He’s the 
one who created that culture, who 
sets the tone.
He’s the one who tells freshman 
left-hander Walker Cleveland after 
his first collegiate win, “Remember, 
it’s about the team.”
He’s taken those steps to make 
this team bigger than a group of 35 
students.
“You know, the first year I 
was here, there were no minority 
players on our team,” Bakich said. 
“Maybe this is just a personal 
philosophy or preference, but I just 
feel that at this school, especially 

given its legacy, our roster should 
look like the United States of 
America.”
Bakich’s 
talents 
go 
beyond 
culture 
setting, 
though, 
and 
throughout the year he’s made 
tough calls and spent days working 
with his team to put them in the 
position they’re in. In the middle 
of the Big Ten season, he switched 
left-hander Tommy Henry to a 
Saturday starter after a few games 
of struggling, and Henry settled 
back down in his new role.
As the playoffs began, he 
dropped 
season-long 
closer, 
freshman 
right-hander 
Willie 
Weiss in favor of one of his two 
starting pitchers. He also dropped 
senior outfielder Miles Lewis from 
the starting lineup, who started 59 
games this year, in favor of a hot-
handed Christian Bullock.
The 
Wolverines 
may 
have 
gotten hot at just the right time. 
They may have caught “lightning 
in a bottle,” and shocked college 
baseball with their run, but as 
Bakich alternated between hitting 
fly balls to the outfield and gently 
knocking ground balls to his son 
twenty feet away, it was clear that 
Bakich was the one who put the 
bottle there.

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Michigan coach Erik Bakich has led the Wolverines to a 48-20 record this season.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior left fielder Christan Bullock has reemerged as a starter this postseason.

